Happy things!

[Pegasus Unbound]

Inspired by @AluraMist, I wanted to start sharing happy news stories and things to offset all the negative junk. Please feel free to add your happy news or pictures as well.

Lets get started:

Gen Xers are folks born between 1965 and 1980. There are roughly 65.2 million of them in the United States. Brood Xers are also native to America, but this year, you can expect a population of about a trillion or so of them to show up in backyards across swaths of the mid-Atlantic and Midwest.
Did we mention they’re insects?

Since this year’s huge batch of Brood X cicadas is of the 17-year variety—keeping mum underground for nearly two decades, lying in wait to emerge and mate, accompanied by an exuberant and sometimes ear-shattering chorus that would have made Beethoven proud—they’re grabbing quite a lot of media attention.

“This is a real treat. This is an unusual biological phenomenon. Periodical cicadas only occur in the eastern United States; they don’t occur anywhere else in the world,” entomologist Eric Day of Virginia Polytechnic Institute andState University extension told CNN. “It’s just going to be an amazingly big, big show.”

But the ubiquitous swarming insects aren’t just in the news, with a little help from some friends, they’re actually winning the Internet.

The Fairfax, Virginia-based father/daughter team of Scott and Ellie Kanowitz have come up with a series of increasingly complex humorous vignettes starring the media-happy bugs interacting with a variety of toy props.

They admit the one drawback to gently using live bug actors was that they did not always take direction well.

“Posing and building more and more elaborate schemes trying to get them to stay still and learn about the cicadas was really exciting,” Scott told WTOP News. “I think one thing we learned was that they don’t like to ride on skateboards.”

“It was fun to try to get them to stay still and pick them up,” 11-year-old Ellie added. “I want to put them on more cars, and more miniature things.”

It’s certainly the kind of family project to spark creativity, but its duration will be short-lived. The cicada’s above-ground life cycle lasts only a few short weeks.

Of course, team Kanowitz could always try for a sequel…

Coming soon to a device near you! The Locust Zombie Apocalypse 2021! “They’ll be back!” (Okay, in 17 years.) Be amused! Very amused!

[Pegasus Unbound]

Today in History: June 4th



125 years ago today, Henry Ford unveiled his first ‘horseless carriage’, driving it through the streets of Detroit, with his assistant cycling ahead to alert pedestrians. The ‘Quadricycle’ used four bicycle wheels and a chain powered by a two-cylinder, 4-horsepower engine running on ethanol. Fabricated in a tiny workshop behind his home, Ford reportedly discovered the shed’s door wasn’t wide enough to get the vehicle out, so he broke through the wall with an axe. After two years of experimentation, he rolled down Grand River Ave. with the 500-pound invention at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. Though the metal-framed vehicle was equipped with two driving speeds, there was no reverse and no brake—but Ford installed a doorbell ringer as a horn. The charming success that day sparked the founding of the Henry Ford Company in 1901 that turned the Michigan man into one of America’s wealthiest and most emulated businessman.

Just think how one little idea led to the creation of something that would forever change the world. Never give up on your ideas.

If you can dream it, it can become a goal. If it becomes a goal, you can achieve it. If you achieve it, it becomes reality. So it just shows that dreams can become reality; make your own dreams come true.

[AluraMist]

This isn't a 'news story'. It's just something about one of my happy things. I spent some time this afternoon at my happy place. It’s nothing extravagant --- just the patio in my back yard.

After the rain stopped for a while, I went out and spent some time refilling the four bird feeders, cleaning and refilling the bird bath, refilling the hummingbird feeder, and setting up the patio furniture.

Last weekend, we spent a day removing one of the old trees that was ‘unsafe’. That still leaves us four large, old trees inside the fenced-in yard, and then there are at least sixteen trees on the outside of the fence line.

The birds seems to enjoy the setup. It attracts quite a variety. When I come out here early in the morning with my cup of coffee, I can hear the doves ‘coo-ing’. Then there are the two woodpeckeers nearby. That sound can be annoying on nice days when the bedroom windows are open. Some other birds that I see are sparrows, blue jays, black birds, and cardinals. The cardinals are my favorite. So far this season, I have seen three male cardinals, two females, and two babies. The mom and dad are very protective of them.

Beyond the trees, about 15 feet out, there is a railroad line (still active). The train comes by about three times a day (9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 8 p.m.). It is usually a long train with box cars, coal cars, tank cars, and the little red caboose.

I remember when we first moved into this house, my grandchildren were young. They used to stand on the cement benches that we have outside, and they would wave to the conductor on the train as it went by. And the conductor would wave back and then blow the train whistle. The kids just loved it! The dogs weren’t too happy about the train noise and the whistle. They ran from one end of the fence to the other, until the train was gone. And they still do.

So sitting on my patio, watching the birds eat and bathe, is my happy place. It is my great escape. Simple as it is. I love it.

[Pegasus Unbound]

[Pegasus Unbound]

[AluraMist]

This made me smile today. I don't know which one is more precious --- the dog or the little boy ---

[Pegasus Unbound]

This made me smile today. I don't know which one is more precious --- the dog or the little boy ---

Super cute! A really special clip, it really made me smile!

[AluraMist]

Newsworthy and cute --- Today, June 9th, is "National Donald Duck Day". It commemorates the birthday of a funny animated cartoon character. Donald Duck made his first screen debut on June 9, 1934, in "The Wise Little Hen".
Trivia: His middle name is Fauntleroy. The name means “child king” (derived from Old French).

[Pegasus Unbound]

[Pegasus Unbound]

A high school senior headed to Harvard University has asked that a $40,000 scholarship she earned be given instead to a student attending community college.

Verda Tetteh, from Fitchburg High School in Massachusetts, knows how a community college can change someone's life, as her mother attended one at 39.

Tetteh, who plans on majoring in chemistry and following a pre-med track at Harvard, turned down the $40,000 in scholarship money from her high school while accepting the school's general excellence award on June 4.
"I am so very grateful for this but I also know that I am not the one who needs this the most," she said in her speech. "And knowing my mom went to community college, and how much that was helpful, I would be so very grateful if administration ... would consider giving the general excellence scholarship to someone who's going to community college.

"It is such a great honor, but I also know that I am not the most in need of it," she added.

The prestigious scholarship is for $10,000 a year and renewable for four years.

Her mother sat in the audience as her fellow students gave her a standing ovation.

"I am in awe of her, so proud of her, and I think that that's something that's very difficult to do," Tetteh told NBC Boston about her mother's return to school later in life. "But she knew she wanted to improve her life and improve the lives of her children."


Tetteh, who moved from Ghana with her family when she was 8, plans on using other small scholarship money and financial aid to pay for Harvard. She wants to help give another student a leg up in life in their own college journey.
"Someone else needs it more than me, and there just was no excuse why I wouldn't give it up when that was the right thing to do" .